Does anyone know what will happen to Newton when SD Victoria takes over her role? And does anyone know who runs the Sal class these days? I know Salmaster is now called Ocean Endeavour and is operated by Gardline but what about the other two? Photos will be welcome.

Bob S

27th December 2010, 16:38

SALMAID & SALMOOR became SD SALMAID & SD SALMOOR in 2008 and are still operated by Serco

SD SALMOOR seen at Portsmouth in May 2010
OCEAN ENDEAVOUR seen at Great Yarmouth in September 2004

Regards

Bob

Bob S

27th December 2010, 16:44

This time with SD SALMOOR (Thumb)

Bob S

28th December 2010, 16:24

SD NEWTON is for sale

http://www.damentrading.nl/damen/

See vessels under "support".

Regards

bob

RetiredPMSO

28th December 2010, 16:41

Interesting to note sale of NEWTON up until recently SD were offering here for charter. Also see a number of other ex RMAS vessels on the Damen site.

Slowone

12th May 2011, 16:38

SD NEWTON has been sitting alongside in Greenock for the last few months in the hope of getting some work for SERCO. She should be getting dragged off the wall and heading out to sea again in the next week or so I understand from a mate who has been given a couple of weeks work on her.

Waighty

12th May 2011, 16:58

SD NEWTON has been sitting alongside in Greenock for the last few months in the hope of getting some work for SERCO. She should be getting dragged off the wall and heading out to sea again in the next week or so I understand from a mate who has been given a couple of weeks work on her.

The Bath Retired MSOs Lunch Club brought this matter up last Monday; nice to know she's getting some work to do. How will they man her? Agency? Their own guys? I reckon she'd make a great wee passenger/cruise vessel after some conversion work.

Slowone

12th May 2011, 22:05

She will be maned by agency staff, though one of my old team has gone back to her on the agency to help keep her going, the one key member missing with be a good ETO. Someone would need to spend a couple of quid on her to make her usable as a cruiser, though the hull is very good and most of the tanks are like new.

Slowone

22nd May 2011, 15:43

NEWTON is on it's way to Plymouth, passing Falmouth making 10 kts so they have almost made it to port. Will update info soon.

mil511mariner

24th May 2011, 12:10

With regard to the Newtons hull - class restrictions were imposed in the late 1990's due to the brittle nature of the steel used to build the ship. This meant the ship could not work North of 66N from October to March as low temperatures could cause structural problems. Even after this being discovered and restrictions implemented the "RMAS" still used the excellent ship amongst the ice floes pictures (taken by Mike Fishwick) for publicity purposes !

I also remember a protracted period in Portsmouth 1998 having extensive steel repairs done to the fore peak tanks due to excessive corrosion. All most all the stringer plates were replaced during that period.

The ship also suffered cracking across the deck just forward of the accomodation and it was all ways worry of being in a head sea when you felt the bow sheeves slam and the ripple of shock going throught the ship that the cracks would open up. The prudent Master would take the ship 20 degrees off the waves / swell and zig zag to try to avoid damage by slamming.

Slowone

21st June 2011, 19:08

NEWTON was the best sea-boat the RMAS had I believe, well they have operated some that used to roll on a wet blanket, and were very uncomfortable and that's being charitable. Having taken NEWTON across the Atlantic a few times I agree with the sentiment that taking the sea on the shoulder made for a better more comfortable passage. Cracking of the deck was not a significant problem in later years, thankfully. Having been through all the tanks with the LR surveyor for her last special survey, she was in very good condition.

Having spent a lot of time looking at the ships vibration characteristics I came to the conclusion that running with the rafts unlocked probably added to the strange vibrations we all used to feel when in a big sea. The net effect was the top sets were oscillating at a different frequency to the main engine raft so she felt like she was bouncing !!! It was interesting but I never felt she was unsafe.

RetiredPMSO

2nd July 2011, 17:02

I reckon TYPHOON beat NEWTON when it comes to best sea boat. Mind you they still could not beat the relative comfort of WHITEHEAD when we spent many weeks at anchor in Kyle with the papers every day and a run ashore at night. Now thats what i call going to sea! Though the trip up from Plymouth was always fun as the old man always insisted on having the activated rudder on whilst going round Lands End.

salmaid (or whatever shes called now) seems to be a lot higher out the water than salmoor.

Slowone

19th March 2012, 20:52

Going back to the days when the 3 Sal class were built, the 3 ships were supposed to be identical. But as the company was going to the wall at the time, the steel content went down as each one was built. Salmaster being the last one was significantly lighter than the other 2. There were a number of incidents while she was at Rosyth of aft bulkheads cracking in the ballast tanks, the shell plating in the steering flat ruptured when the ship was up off Iceland in heavy weather, fortunatly that was not the trip I was on! She was light but in good weather she was a lot faster than the other 2.
I recall Salmaster coming out of the Humber to see Newton heading for Rosyth for a refit, we had the pleasure of over taking the pride of the fleet and arrived in Rosyth well ahead of her :-)

roofaerosyth

19th March 2012, 21:29

the beaks at bath tried to feed the skipper(you know who i mean mark), to the lions over the cracking and rupturing down aft.they felt that he ran on 2 engines too often, and that it had led to a lot of damage to the ship.ive been on all 3 sal boats at one time or another and salmoor was by far the best built.

Slowone

20th March 2012, 23:16

I recall departing Rosyth with the engine control system doing anything but control the engines, so Willie Miller and I tweaked the system to keep the show on the road. In really good weather heading North we managed to get 15 knots on one engine on Salmaster. I know from my time in Bath that Salmoor and Salmaid could not get close to that. Strange to recall now that getting that speed on one engine didn't give the same cavitation problems we used to get when running 2 engines up towards full pitch.

roofaerosyth

21st March 2012, 00:09

i heard that it was a naval architect that shot baths allegations at the skipper down.that and the fact that the skipper was always told to make sure we got back to rosyth by friday.so in order to achieve that, sometimes he had no option but to go onto 2 engines.you know yourself mark.we sailed on a monday,and 9 times out of 10, we were back by friday.if we were not back by fri there was big trouble.i never understood how not working weekends saved the mod money.surely it would have been more cost effective to stay at sea for a couple of weeks to get all the work in a specific area done.instead of steaming down to the likes of the wash for 3 days work.then steam back to rosyth again on the friday.only to sail again the following monday, back to the wash again.the fuel costs alone must have been enormous.

Waighty

21st March 2012, 11:37

i heard that it was a naval architect that shot baths allegations at the skipper down.that and the fact that the skipper was always told to make sure we got back to rosyth by friday.so in order to achieve that, sometimes he had no option but to go onto 2 engines.you know yourself mark.we sailed on a monday,and 9 times out of 10, we were back by friday.if we were not back by fri there was big trouble.i never understood how not working weekends saved the mod money.surely it would have been more cost effective to stay at sea for a couple of weeks to get all the work in a specific area done.instead of steaming down to the likes of the wash for 3 days work.then steam back to rosyth again on the friday.only to sail again the following monday, back to the wash again.the fuel costs alone must have been enormous.

Bear in mind that the fuel bill wasn't paid by DMS(N)/RMAS but by PSTO(N) so operationally it wouldn't have made much difference but I agree that the Monday to Friday business was plain daft, all to save a few quid on overtime. I remember on Goosander having to return to Rosyth from Rosehearty and then because of bad weather not being able to get back out on the range for a while; the RAF were not amused and we were stuck with whalebacks all over the place for ages.

Waighty

21st March 2012, 11:51

Going back to the days when the 3 Sal class were built, the 3 ships were supposed to be identical. But as the company was going to the wall at the time, the steel content went down as each one was built. Salmaster being the last one was significantly lighter than the other 2. There were a number of incidents while she was at Rosyth of aft bulkheads cracking in the ballast tanks, the shell plating in the steering flat ruptured when the ship was up off Iceland in heavy weather, fortunatly that was not the trip I was on! She was light but in good weather she was a lot faster than the other 2.
I recall Salmaster coming out of the Humber to see Newton heading for Rosyth for a refit, we had the pleasure of over taking the pride of the fleet and arrived in Rosyth well ahead of her :-)

Mark, Salmaster was the second one into service; it was Salmaid that was last. I know this because the intended master and chief came on board Salmaster when we were working on the Humber to get an idea on what to expect. The master (Hugh somebody I think) spent the whole time saying "we don't do it this way in Devonport"!

Always nice to overtake the "flagship". When I was deep-sea the ship I was on was about a week out of Panama for Aussie. The "flagship" (new container ship) came flying past us and over the horizon. A day later we passed her while she wallowed in the Pacific swell; that night she romped past us again. Next day the whole scene repeated itself. This went on for a couple of days until our courses diverged; she was heading for Kiwi. Gives you that schadenfreude feeling doesn't it?

Waighty

21st March 2012, 12:12

With regard to the Newtons hull - class restrictions were imposed in the late 1990's due to the brittle nature of the steel used to build the ship. This meant the ship could not work North of 66N from October to March as low temperatures could cause structural problems. Even after this being discovered and restrictions implemented the "RMAS" still used the excellent ship amongst the ice floes pictures (taken by Mike Fishwick) for publicity purposes !

I also remember a protracted period in Portsmouth 1998 having extensive steel repairs done to the fore peak tanks due to excessive corrosion. All most all the stringer plates were replaced during that period.

The ship also suffered cracking across the deck just forward of the accomodation and it was all ways worry of being in a head sea when you felt the bow sheeves slam and the ripple of shock going throught the ship that the cracks would open up. The prudent Master would take the ship 20 degrees off the waves / swell and zig zag to try to avoid damage by slamming.

I concur with the bow being slightly off the waves/swell to avoid slamming and stress of weather damage. The resultant "corkscrewing" motion, whilst not very comfortable, was infinitely better than suffering damage.

I notice from photos that the Ocean Endeavour (ex Salmaster) has had a breakwater fitted between the horns with lightening holes at intervals. I assume that this works a lot better than the portable so-called breakwater that Hall Russell/DG Ships gave us.

We used and had ours fitted (well aft of the horns) before heading up to the NW approaches for a February JMC. At the time I moaned like stink about the fact that it was only secured by insufficiently spaced bolts and had no lightening holes to minimise shock from walls of water; no one seemed bothered. First big wave after Pentland Firth the starboard end came adrift and over the next 15 minutes the whole thing gradually worked loose and then disappeared over the side! And this at reduced revs to avoid damage. When we got back to Rosyth I put a report in about it and surprise surprise heard no more.

The trip was a success though, eventually, after days of force 11s. Salmaster's motion and seakeeping qualities were good. Even some of the boffins on board managed to appear occasionally!

roofaerosyth

21st March 2012, 18:13

big waves, big bangs,no sleep,food didnt stay down for long,and although we had a bond aboard, nobody was really using it.even the old seasoned sea dogs.give me a harbour tug any day.lol.

Waighty

22nd March 2012, 18:59

Not quite the same as climbing up the side of one wave and plummeting down the other, although I do remember doing something like that on Collie once in the outer Forth.

roofaerosyth

22nd March 2012, 20:26

you should see the north-east corner of the basin when theres a south westerly gale blowing.thats rough enough for me these days mike lol.

Waighty

5th April 2012, 19:00

you should see the north-east corner of the basin when theres a south westerly gale blowing.thats rough enough for me these days mike lol.

You're right Roo. I mind driving Uplifter at full ahead one stormy day in the basin just to keep her in one position, it went on for quarter of an hour or so until we got a lull and got back alongside! Really I shouldn't have left the berth but hindsight's a wonderful thing. We were supposed to be working recovering AFD moorings when they changed AFDs in the 80s.

nodes

14th April 2012, 22:00

Of the three Sals the only decent built one was Salmoor, she had 12mm plate, the other two where built with 6mm plate and because of that had problems with metal fatigue etc, I know that Salmoor was a far better seaboat and handled better than Salmaid, which shuddered badly if you clipped a lightbuoy but unlike Salmoor. I speak as having been master on both, the Newton in recent years was to me a vessel which would dissappear suddenely at sea, after 1996, refits where of minimal nature and SERCO ran her maintenance on a repair basis. Also her stability was altered when all the heavy winches above the waterline was removed and compensated by pouring concrete into her cable tanks, some of her senior staff requested this because her cable tanks were emptied of old cable on stability grounds though how a cable ship sails after using all her cable on a lay and has to sail to a port to load!!! When new she used to crack her shell plating regulary by the senior scientist cabin, this was cured by fitting gusset plates. She was a failure for which she was built, that is a quiet running trials platform, because of this St Margarets ran on for several more years past her due scrapping date( and yes she was a better seaboat to ), this was due to the fact she was fitted with standard kort nozzle instead of a quite running one. The Newton was towed home a few times because her electric generators burnt out and in FLOO's there was a standing order that the ship had to request permission of CinC fleet to use her third generator to get her home in an emergency. Also her builders asked her crew to quitely take her away from them as they believed her accomodation was below the standard that they like to fit in a vessel they built.

roofaerosyth

14th April 2012, 22:33

somebody once told me in the early 90s that newton raised and lowered flags at sunsise/sunset just like naval ships.is this true?

RetiredPMSO

15th April 2012, 14:05

the Newton in recent years was to me a vessel which would dissappear suddenely at sea, after 1996, refits where of minimal nature and SERCO ran her maintenance on a repair basis. Also her stability was altered when all the heavy winches above the waterline was removed and compensated by pouring concrete into her cable tanks, some of her senior staff requested this because her cable tanks were emptied of old cable on stability grounds though how a cable ship sails after using all her cable on a lay and has to sail to a port to load!!! When new she used to crack her shell plating regulary by the senior scientist cabin, this was cured by fitting gusset plates. She was a failure for which she was built, that is a quiet running trials platform, because of this St Margarets ran on for several more years past her due scrapping date( and yes she was a better seaboat to ), this was due to the fact she was fitted with standard kort nozzle instead of a quite running one. The Newton was towed home a few times because her electric generators burnt out and in FLOO's there was a standing order that the ship had to request permission of CinC fleet to use her third generator to get her home in an emergency. Also her builders asked her crew to quitely take her away from them as they believed her accomodation was below the standard that they like to fit in a vessel they built.

I am not sure where you got half this rubbish from. First the cable tanks, due to stability issues DGShips made her carry a load of spare cable. When the SLEP was done this became an issue due to the inability of the LR surveyor to inspect the tanks bottoms, hence it had to be removed. It was then compensated for by adding concrete. Newton only got towed home once due to a main motor burn out not generator burn out, also there was no ban on using a 3rd generator unless we had permission, the 3 generators could be used in all sorts of configurations as befitted her constant current lop set up. She could even be propelled in a quiet state using the top sets in a ward leonard configuation if required.

After 1996 the vessel was under the control of GM RMAS and her refit pattern matched that of the LR survey regime, even now that she is in the hands of Serco to keep her in Class the same system must be followed.

mil511mariner

15th April 2012, 18:00

You got in before me Ron - BZ

If I remember it was the Robust that towed her home from the Bay of Biscay early 1987ish.
Got around on the top sets at least 4 times when there were problems down below but never had a tow in my 8 years.
If you needed to be some where in a hurry you could put all three MPG's in the DC loop and put the AC on the top sets and fairly rattle along.

Slowone

15th April 2012, 18:01

As an ex Chief Engineer of Newton I had listen to the stories over the years, and while she had some problems, what man-made object is perfect? We did see some minor cracking by the steps up to the tumid deck, that was a simple repair. Having crossed the Atlantic in her a few times I had no concerns she would break up, even when getting a hammering from a massive storm for 10 days straight. In the recent past she did have an LR CoC on one engine due to wear on the cam shafts, but it could be used at the C/Eng's discretion. She was maintained to Flag and Class through out my time on her, and we had no issues with either establishment meeting survey requirements.
The one thing she did have that the Victoria does not have is character, she was a good ship to work on, always throwing interesting issues at the engineering team. Once you understood her you could get on with the job and enjoy it.

Regarding the main generators, post the SLEP, she only needed 2 sets running to provide all the DC and AC power required, so you always had a set in your pocket to swap a set out if you wanted/needed to do some maintenance.

mil511mariner

15th April 2012, 19:02

Nice new shiny generators post 2000 SLEP - not the leaky tired old Mirrlees Blackstones she was built with. I later found out, during an interesting conversation with an Indian Engineer, that the original generators were refurbished and exported to a power station in India where they are still working

Slowone

17th April 2012, 18:45

The nice new Ruston RK215's fitted in the SELP to reduce maintenance etc, were a major pain in the a***. So many failures over the few years. Every trip, you could be certain at least 1 or 2 water pumps would fail as a minimum, you just got used to the machinery and were not too surprised when something else fell off. Says something about the quality of the engines when all 3 had been rebuilt with new drive train gears 3 times in only 12000 hours, still glad the Blackstones had gone though.

roofaerosyth

21st April 2012, 17:08

i always assumed that blackstones were quite reliable but obviously not.the 8 cylinder(albeit a lot older and probably smaller) blackstones on the dogs are reliable.and when they do fall over its usualy nothing major and fixed in no time.(but remember that my knowledge of engines aint great).but ive picked up a few things over the years.

Slowone

21st April 2012, 22:39

The 2 top sets (Blackstones) were our get out of jail card if we hit too many problems with the Rustons in the engine room. They were blessed with normal Blackstone features, leaked fuel and oil, to the extent it was a bit like an auto oil change feature!!! I believe the term is agricultural.

i always thought the accomodation on the sals was pretty good.hope to see pics as well.

Waighty

10th May 2012, 21:04

I spoke to an ex Forth Ports colleague and he tells me that Kommandor Calum is not on the advance list for Leith arrivals as yet. If anyone knows different please post a thread.

BigBev

16th May 2012, 16:15

the beaks at bath tried to feed the skipper(you know who i mean mark), to the lions over the cracking and rupturing down aft.they felt that he ran on 2 engines too often, and that it had led to a lot of damage to the ship.ive been on all 3 sal boats at one time or another and salmoor was by far the best built.

Aye she was maybe the best built but was also the worst run

Slowone

16th May 2012, 21:01

Do tell us all more Bev

roofaerosyth

16th May 2012, 22:05

welcome bev.long time no see.

BigBev

19th May 2012, 15:36

welcome bev.long time no see.

Hi Roo how are you these days, where are you working now, still at Rosyth? I have not long joined Shipsnostalgia, it was Brian that mentioned it to me. I have already been in contact with Mike Waight and Trever Ashurst, so you are the third one to get in touch, trust you are keeping well how are your mum and dad getting on, have not seen them for ages?

Bev

roofaerosyth

19th May 2012, 18:54

yeah im still there bev.im on deerhound still but dont work for rms anymore as they lost the contract.how is brian?give him my regards the next time you see him.havent seen him since ? 95 ish.i seen trevors post from a while back on one of the forum threads(kinloss i think) but havent seen anything from him since.mike has helped me a lot on this site as i was posting questions in the wrong sections.lots of other members have helped me out too.just ask a question and someone will have the answer usually.my mum and dad are doing away fine and it was my dad that sorted me out with regards to getting on this site as i didnt have a clue how to go about it.cheers bev.ROO

Slowone

19th May 2012, 22:35

Hi Bev, how you doing, still living the good life in Cairneyhill? I'm still in contact with Mike Fordyce who is still hiding out in Kyle. Think most of the old RMAS engineers have departed Serco for retirement. In case you are wondering, I took over from you on Salmaster!!!

BigBev

20th May 2012, 16:32

Hi ??????

Your still alive then as I recall Alec Fletcher took over from me when I took early retirement and Alec sadly suffered a fatal heart attack while at sea or am I missing something? Anyway you have got me but thats not hard because names have alway's been a problem to me, faces fine, names not so good. There was a Bob? in the Engineering Office ashore but I thought he stayed with Cerco at the time. I know Alec stayed with RMAS as he got my place when I decided to go or Davey Langlands who was already on the Sals but not sure about anyone else? Give us a clue cheers.

Bev

Waighty

22nd May 2012, 20:13

Hi ??????

Your still alive then as I recall Alec Fletcher took over from me when I took early retirement and Alec sadly suffered a fatal heart attack while at sea or am I missing something? Anyway you have got me but thats not hard because names have alway's been a problem to me, faces fine, names not so good. There was a Bob? in the Engineering Office ashore but I thought he stayed with Cerco at the time. I know Alec stayed with RMAS as he got my place when I decided to go or Davey Langlands who was already on the Sals but not sure about anyone else? Give us a clue cheers.

Bev

Hi Bev,

We've already exchanged PMs but it's good to see you on this forum. I've left a request for names on your photo of Nimble in Norway.

Speaking of Alec Fletcher's passing, you'll probably know better than me, but Roo's given me a lot of info about Rosyth folk who crossed the bar. Shame to see the numbers shrinking.

I was slightly out of the loop for a number of years but I seem to recall that Davy Langlands went with Serco and might even still be there. I'm sure other folk might know - Mark for instance.

Mike

BigBev

22nd May 2012, 22:40

Hi Mike

Yes Davey Langlands is still with Cerco at the moment, doing some work on a stores system according to Colin, of course he may have finished that now and be on another job.

Some of the guy's to cross the bar are Tam McKenna (pic), Hugh Clark (pic), Harold Burt (pic), Brian Sherriff, Scouse Webster, Roy Beveridge, Semour Lachlan, Alastair MacGreggor (pic), Frank Boyle, Sandy Boyle, Davey Brown (pic), Frank Derry (pic), Colin Thompson (pic), George Booth, Mike Waldron, (pic) and there are 4 or five others possibly in the picture but I can't remember there names at the moment especially the mate who took the salvage classes? 2nd row between Hugh Clark and Norman Stubbs.

The names of the crew on Nimle in Norway that I remember are Skipper - Barry Kinch, Mate - Jerry Furze, Chief - Myself, 2nd Eng - Colin Booth, Stoker - Derek Welbon, can't remember the other names, one of the AB's was nicknamed Teabag, one at the back next to Jerry Furze.

Bev

roofaerosyth

23rd May 2012, 00:43

teabag was john lugton i think.mikey stewart is in the pic.as is stuart kerr.

Waighty

23rd May 2012, 11:04

Hi Mike

Yes Davey Langlands is still with Cerco at the moment, doing some work on a stores system according to Colin, of course he may have finished that now and be on another job.

Some of the guy's to cross the bar are Tam McKenna (pic), Hugh Clark (pic), Harold Burt (pic), Brian Sherriff, Scouse Webster, Roy Beveridge, Semour Lachlan, Alastair MacGreggor (pic), Frank Boyle, Sandy Boyle, Davey Brown (pic), Frank Derry (pic), Colin Thompson (pic), George Booth, Mike Waldron, (pic) and there are 4 or five others possibly in the picture but I can't remember there names at the moment especially the mate who took the salvage classes? 2nd row between Hugh Clark and Norman Stubbs.

The names of the crew on Nimle in Norway that I remember are Skipper - Barry Kinch, Mate - Jerry Furze, Chief - Myself, 2nd Eng - Colin Booth, Stoker - Derek Welbon, can't remember the other names, one of the AB's was nicknamed Teabag, one at the back next to Jerry Furze.

Bev

Shame to see so many have gone. Thanks for info re Davy Langlands.

Mick Carey was the Training Officer at MSS&SD. At the same time I think the Salvage Engineer was a namesake of yours , I've got a feeling they used to call him 'faither'. Bob Erskine took over from him.

Thanks for the names on Nimble; it looked very cold up there. Roo has already identified the others - John Lugton and Stewart Kerr. I can still mind Stewart's efforts on Cairn at making lentil soup! I'll say no more.

BigBev

23rd May 2012, 21:19

Thanks for that Roo I see Mike has already got the names from you of the other three I forgot.

senior pilot

23rd May 2012, 21:25

a few names from my time in rosyth by the way Harold's name is spelt Birt my cousin.

BigBev

23rd May 2012, 21:31

Hi Mike
Some other names for you that have crossed the bar. Tom Rennie (pic), John Griffiths and yes it was indeed Mick Carey (pic), also the Deck Officer back row next to Peter Graham can't remember his name, know his nickname but wont put it on site. Some other names John Rennie & Bobby Hannah.

Pete Graham is back on the Tugs, he is over in Gibraltar, as for the remainder some I havent seen or heard of for years so I can't help you there.

BigBev

23rd May 2012, 22:08

I like this word tweak, it was because of quote tweaking that it took Davey and Colin ages to get the right settings on the control systems. The prop setting being only correctly achieved whilst in dry dock as you had to align all marks. When I rejoined her as chief I carried on along with Colin and eventually she came good. We normally ran on one Engine due to a directive from Bath, only two Engines if situations required it, one Engine 4 - 6 Tons of fuel over 24 hr period, two engines 8 -10 tons, quite a bit of extra fuel for extra three knots. I was on the Iceland trip where the hull got cracked in steering flat, had to shore off area, put in drain away and cement block it up, plugging drain on completion, lasted till we got home. The weather conditions on that trip were bad to say the least and we took a lot of damage, loosing the cat walk between the horns being another part of damage, also Crane electrics being goosed due to water intake. The weather on that trip was so bad we were forced to use both engines. But one thing is for sure the Salmoor was the only one of the three built to the original specifications. I also carried out a full vibration analysis check on Salmaster when I was with the vibration team in Rosyth, the results being duplicated and sent to Bath, but they must have been like the Newton and disapeared at sea? Most of the problems with a lot of the machinery was due to mounting on the hull, some machinery being worse than others. Also during next refit after that time, extra ballast and stiffners were added to tanks to eleviate some of the vibrations, it improved situation a lot. The ballast that was added should have been there in the first place. By the way as I tried to point out to a certain boss on the Clyde, it made no difference if you ran two engines whilst manouvering as only one took the load. The port engine I think, so one engine was enough for most tasks and of course entering and leaving port, and if you don't believe it I suggested he read the manuals. I don't suppose that did my career any favours, but hey I'm still here, well I think I am, I was when I got up this morning.

I recall departing Rosyth with the engine control system doing anything but control the engines, so Willie Miller and I tweaked the system to keep the show on the road. In really good weather heading North we managed to get 15 knots on one engine on Salmaster. I know from my time in Bath that Salmoor and Salmaid could not get close to that. Strange to recall now that getting that speed on one engine didn't give the same cavitation problems we used to get when running 2 engines up towards full pitch.

roofaerosyth

23rd May 2012, 23:14

Hi Mike
Some other names for you that have crossed the bar. Tom Rennie (pic), John Griffiths and yes it was indeed Mick Carey (pic), also the Deck Officer back row next to Peter Graham can't remember his name, know his nickname but wont put it on site. Some other names John Rennie & Bobby Hannah.

Pete Graham is back on the Tugs, he is over in Gibraltar, as for the remainder some I havent seen or heard of for years so I can't help you there.

paul darby i think bev.

aholtham

24th May 2012, 18:02

Paul Darby and his brother Peter Darby were childhood friends of my in Wyke Regis. At that time their Father, George Darby was I believe the Captain on the tug Antic in Portland. They moved to Rosyth when the tug changed base ports. They lived in the Prefabs in Inverkeithing/Dunfermline and later down at Limekilns.

My next door neighbour was the engineeer on the Kinbrace Mr Fennymoor.

Cheers Tony.

BigBev

24th May 2012, 22:49

Hi All

Sorry I spelt Harolds surname wrong it should have been Birt not Burt. I was corrected by senior pilot who is his cousin, sorry once again. Thanks for getting name for me i.e. Paul Darby, I should have remembered but as said once before I am terrible with names.

Bev

BigBev

24th May 2012, 23:20

Hi Tony

Thanks for that bit of info but you may know didn't pauls family stay in a little place off the Rosyth to Crombie road called Pattiesmuir? I know Paul stayed in Limekilns for a time after he married, he returned to stay in Pattiesmuir on his return back up here after his stint down South.

Bev

aholtham

25th May 2012, 17:52

Bev, yes, last saw his Mother in Pattiesmuir whilst I took Swiftusre into Rosyth in the early 1990s. Last saw Paul on a trip to Portland and had a boat trip on the Opal. Got into trouble when they put us on a buoy and some of the craft did a photo call for us. Paul was escorting I think the Tidespring out but may have been another RFA. Not sure of the date. Cannot remember which tug he was on then.

Had some good times back in the 80s. Had a guided tour around Rosyth Kyle and Greenock which was after the above. The Navy Days at Rosyth was the following day so we went out on the Spear and watched and photographed the Fearless being brought in for Navy days. The trip around the basin also nearly got the host officer in trouble as we could not resist pointing our cameras towards the laid up submarines, well one my colleagues did.

One day I will have time and know how in putting pictures onto the web.

Cheers Tony.

Waighty

29th May 2012, 21:15

Cass Cooper and I were cord holders at Paul's funeral at Pattiesmuir; a sad day for someone who was only 57. After he left RMAS he was mate then master aboard the Forth Ports dredger Abbotsgrange until the dreaded Big C took hold so personnel moved him to the Grangemouth harbour office where we often handed over to each other while on shift work. I drove him to the Western General in Edinburgh a couple of times when the illness was too bad for him to drive and Gaye couldn't do it.

When I first started at Rosyth both Paul and Gaye were very suppportive of me and my family until we found our feet, for which I was always extremely grateful. And it wasn't just us either, at the same time they were both helping Jimmy Jasper and his wife who lived just across the road.

Waighty

29th May 2012, 21:23

Hi Mike
Some other names for you that have crossed the bar. Tom Rennie (pic), John Griffiths and yes it was indeed Mick Carey (pic), also the Deck Officer back row next to Peter Graham can't remember his name, know his nickname but wont put it on site. Some other names John Rennie & Bobby Hannah.

Pete Graham is back on the Tugs, he is over in Gibraltar, as for the remainder some I havent seen or heard of for years so I can't help you there.

Hi Bev,

Pete Graham got the Gib job by chance as at the time there was an advert by QHM Gib in Lloyd's List which I saw when I was working at Forth Nav. I can't remember now whether I faxed it over or posted it over to RMS who I think Pete was working for at the time but shortly afterwards he was off to Gib!

Mike

roofaerosyth

29th May 2012, 22:01

he was working for rms at the time mike.he was engineering manager.did harry maize not stay in pattiesmuir ?

BigBev

29th May 2012, 22:35

Roo No I think Harry Maize stayed down Limekilns way I think but not 100% sure. Bev